Of Dust and Stones
by CK - Ace
Summary: Set after Resident Evil 6. Jake returned to his former home to pay his one last visit. But he never expected that he get to share his sensitive past with another. A Jake/Sherry fic but focused mostly onto Jake's past.


**Disclaimers: I do not own anything out of Resident Evil. All of the contents belonged to Capcom.**

_Of Dust and Stones_

* * *

_'I just had my payday at that time, a big one. Then... as I walked into the room. She was there.' - Jake Muller_

* * *

He had forgotten exactly what day it was, but he certainly did remember his age when he left this place years ago.

Jake Muller stared from a short distance to where a small humble stone house was located. One of his fist was planted to the dry wall next to him as he contemplated wheter or not should he step right back to where he came from. The sight of the small rusty mailbox on the front had him grinned innardly, especially the distorted letters of 'MULLER' scratched on the brownish-red surface with some hints of pale white snow on the top. He did that.

It marked that this small humble stone building as his home. His place. His sanctuary.

Long green ferns had grew all over the roof and the cracks was definitely worse than he last saw it, as far as he remembered.

"Damn." He uttered. _'Why am I even here at the first place?'_

Although he was facing his home - directly, Jake wasn't sure of what he was supposed to do with it. He had always promised himself that someday he would return here. But now he did, and he didn't know what he should do next.

Perhaps burning the whole thing down and let it be forgotten?

Or maybe turn around and never come back?

_'Well, this is the only thing mom left for me. And since I'm here anyway...'_

Jake didn't even realized his palm was already touching the cold copper surface of the doorknob.

* * *

Jake coughed several times before covering his nose and mouth with his hand. The moment that the door was pushed open, a strong pungent smell reek the whole place and dust rushing outdoor, meaning that this house was untouched ever since he left it. Jake had to open the wooden door as far wide as he could to let the fresh air gush in to battle the unknown odour.

When he was quite certain that it was okay for him to breathe, Jake's fingers made small slits as he took an experimental breath. "Okay, that's better." At least his nose wasn't feeling uncomfortable.

He took a moment for himself to look around the house.

He's home.

Everything was exactly the same when he had closed the door behind him when he was seventeen. Except that they were covered in a thin layer of dust for being untouched for an unknown amount of time. The old furnitures, that old grand piano, and that...

"Hey, you're still here, little buddy?" Jake grinned weakly as he picked up the rust-covered combat knife he abandoned on the jagged-edge dining table. The grip felt surprisingly familiar to his large hand as Jake twiddle it around, giving it a quick inspection. "Gosh, man, you look like shit." He chided, addressing the weapon as if it was his longtime friend.

Well it was. That was the first ever combat knife he received from his pack of mercenary as a code of his allegiance on his thirteenth birthday. Jake somehow favored that blade very much (although his favourite was his fist), bringing it to his every battlefield.

His mother wasn't very happy about his new occupation as a mercenary though. When he first announced that he will be joining the local mercenaries, Mrs. Muller didn't look as enthusiastic as her son was. She had always wanted her only son to get a proper education, to learn something worthwhile, get a degree and all. And he's telling her that he will be learning how to shoot people as accurate as possible, how to beat people to dead, how to snap their neck in one swift motion. But what can she do to stop her young rascal? Even she herself couldn't afford a better life for her child.

And she needed the money for her medical expenses. Bad.

Jake sighed as he settled the blade down to where it was, regretting.

"I'm sorry, mom."

"Jake...?"

* * *

For a moment his heart skipped a beat when he heard the soft female voice. Of course he had missed his mother so much but had she returned from the Purgatory to haunt this place since? On broad daylight?

He turned around slowly. And he instantly felt stupid for conjuring up such stupid thoughts. His mother was laid rest. She should be okay for now. It wasn't her. It was someone else who knew his name and him.

"Jake?" The voice repeated and Jake smirked wearily to her, "Fancy seeing you here, Supergirl."

Sherry Birkin stood on the entrance as she watched him with curious eyes, "It's really you, Jake." She said half-expectantly. Jake nodded as he crossed his arms to his chest, "Of course, Sherry. Who else could it be? This is my home, or at least it was." He trailed off as he returned his gaze to the humble surrounding. He motioned his thumb over his shoulder, giving her permissions to join him.

Then did she dared to step next to him.

She joined him as he hovered to the grand piano next, "Been a while since China, huh?" She implored. Jake chuckled as he swept the dust away from the mahogany piano cover with his gloved hand, "Uh-huh. Six months and fifteen days." He corrected her as he unlidded the piano, which actually surprised the agent that he actually counted.

Jake calmly pulled the long bench under the piano, brushing it the same manner he did with the instrument, "So, what brings you here to Europe? This place was BOW free and there's no reason for you to be here."

"I... happened to be around here."

"Oh?" He quirked a mocking eyebrow, noticed the doubt in her voice.

"Okay. You got me. I just... Let just say my guts begged me to come and have a look. I didn't know that you picked the same day to return here."

Jake smirked amusingly at her answer. His right five fingers touched the ebony and ivory keys before the other five joined them. Then he began playing fluidly, his once blood soaked fingers moved with grace to a key then to another rhytymically. Sherry was thoroughly amazed, although she had heard him play once in China but it was short and they were in the middle of a fire fight. But now, up close and with nothing in the way whatsoever, the way he played was like a professional.

He paused when he remembered he was being watched, looking back to the woman by his side. The look on her face was priceless indeed, "C'mon, Supergirl. You had seen me played on China, right? Why are you staring at me like an elephant on a piano?"

His comment had her flustered. She shook her head furiously, "N-No! Of course not!" She blabbered, "It's just that... I never expect that a mercenary like you can play like that."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." He nodded approvingly before resuming where he left off, "Mom taught me how to play it. She said that she got this grand piano from my granny. She was very good at it, all my songs are learnt from her."

"I used to own one back at Raccoon City too. Although my parents never got the time to spend with me to teach me any. Mom only taught me 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'... And she could only managed to teach me a little." Her voice broke a little, trying to swallow the lump forming at the back of her throat.

Jake ended his song abruptly, spinning himself so that he was facing her, "I guess we're the same, huh?"

* * *

"Ah, the place that I came in contact with... the least."

Jake stood on the doorway leading to the kitchen, stepping aside a bit to let Sherry admire the little working space of his mother. As expected, everything was covered in dust. But everything was placed in order, the dishes were in its rack, the cutleries were on the right places. And there was sufficient space to work with on the counter. Mrs. Muller sure loved things organized. He glanced over at the greyish fridge then to Sherry who was looking at the same direction as he was.

Sherry smiled to him in agreement, "Not a good idea to open that."

"Yeah."

Satisfied that there was nothing else left to see there, Jake closed the door behind him.

"In case I haven't told you this yet, you have a very nice home, Jake. Minus all the stuff that don't belonged here. Your mother sure did took care of the house." She absently brushed the sheet of dust away from the TV.

Jake tries pressing the switch for the TV, obviously the power was out. And he know that the other appliances would not work too. He sat on the leather couch with several patches to it and rested his arm across the back, "Thanks. It was nice back then. Whenever I came back from my mission, mom would be sitting here waiting for me. No matter how sick she was" He said dreamily to himself, laughing at the good memories.

He was too preoccupied that he didn't realized that Sherry was sitting next to him, staring at him with intent eyes. Then the curve of his lips disappeared suddenly when he finally breathed out, "Then one day... she wasn't waiting anymore."

His stare was empty, perhaps his thought were miles away from where he was now, she thought. "I'm... sorry." Sherry was glad that her voice didn't squeak.

"Nah, don't worry bout' it. Things happen, and that day just happened to be my worst." He paused, before glancing over his shoulder to another room yet unexplored by Sherry. It would be rude for her to visit that room without Jake's permission, after all, it was his house.

Warm breath escaped through his nostril as he breath deeply, before grabbing Sherry gently by her wrist, "There's one more room I haven't show you yet."

The blonde obliged without hesitation as she followed Jake's lead.

* * *

"Better cover your nose first. Or maybe hold your breath." He suggested as he placed his hand on the cold metal. Sherry obeyed as she inhaled deeply and covered her nose and mouth with her palm. Jake did the same thing before twisting the last door open with slight force, causing the same odour when Jake first entered the house to breeze past them.

Jake waved his hand over his face as the dust assaulted him. When it was over, he used the same experimental breath tactic, and the air was okay for them to breath although the odour still lingered but it wasn't that bad. Sherry copied Jake as they both released the breaths they held together.

His heart throbbed fiercely as he finally get to scan the room, melancholy began to fill in as Jake took a few steps into the small room. The DSO agent could only froze behind the mercenary as he took his time to relish whatever memories he had in this particular room.

It was a really simple furnished room: two beds, one with a light blue coverlet and another with a bright red, a small end table with an old lamp on top and that was it.

"This is my bedroom." He introduced as he touched the bed with the blue coverlet, "And of course, this is my bed and that's mom's." He pointed at the bed next to his. The surface was bare and smooth, Jake must have tidied up the bed before he left.

Sherry didn't miss the foreign object lying on the bed of Mrs. Muller. A white turning to faint yellow piece of paper neatly folded on top of the contrasting red blanket, sitting on top that letter a was rolled up bundle of dollars. "Is that...?" She pointed unsurely towards it.

The young Muller nodded slightly before picking the paper up, giving it a whiff to rid it from the nasty things covering it. The bundle of money rolled to the side. "Mom left this for me. Next to her on her deathbed." He unfolded the letter and read it thoughtfully, although he can practically rehearse it backwards. "I just had my payday at that time, a big one. Then... as I walked into the room. She was there."

"I'm sorry, Jake." Sherry rested her hand on his shoulder. Jake took a glance on it before switching his focus to the rolled up money, "Then I cried like a little pussy. Felt like a total piece of crap when I read her final letter to me-"

"Crying over your loved ones doesn't make you a pussy, Jake. I always cried over my parents." She corrected him as she took a seat to Jake's bed. She couldn't help but to take his pillow and put it on her lap; admiring the yellow stains on the soft object. She knew them very well, back in her days on the government's custody, hers were riddled with the same patches.

Tear-stains.

Jake avoided gazes with the woman when he noticed what she was noticing. He felt embarrassed - Jake Muller was known as a cold-steel, heartless, emotionless mercenary who had nothing in his mind but money. That was the image he always give to people but now, to have Sherry Birkin; the only person next to his mother that he opened up his heart to - picturing him cry like a little girl.

He expected her to laugh or to at least snigger at him. But she didn't. Instead, she let out a soft sigh as she placed his pillow back to where it was calmly, "I was wrong about you, Jake. When I first met you..." He raised an eyebrow when they finally exchanged gazes. She was smiling at him, "Back then for me, Jake Muller was nothing but a very expensive vaccine for the C-Virus. Since you had absolutely no interest in anything other than your 50 million dollars. All I was thinking back then was to excort you out of Edonia and that would be it but..."

She trailed off as she looked back toward the stains before giving him the same relieved smile that she gave him in China, when she held his hand on the accelerating platform. Those tears weren't something to be embarrassed about. It symbolized his compassion, that Jake indeed was a man with heart and emotions, not a killing machine that works only on the sole purpose of money.

"You can love someone, Jake. You are not the same man your father was."

It was all he need to understand what she meant. Jake gave a smile mirrored to hers as he sat next to her. Jake grinned to himself as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "Yeah, recently I have been thinking about this 'someone'. But I don't know about her."

"Huh?" Her eyes widen.

Just to show he wasn't lying, the mercenary handed her the letter he was holding. She was surprised, his mother final note wasn't something to be easily shared with others, "Are you sure...?"

Unless she was someone special to him.

He nodded reassuringly, nudging the edge of the note to her skin, "You saved me."

That'll give her a hint, right?

* * *

After Jake Muller shut the door of his former home behind him again, he actually offered to escort Sherry back to her hotel himself before he went back to his place (which was anywhere in Europe, Jake can basically sleep anywhere). According to her, she came here by a cab, stopping where this abandoned town was and walked the rest of the way.

It was already dusk and snowing by moment they had done with the tour of Muller's home. And Jake made the lamest excuse of saying how dangerous would it be for her to walk alone by herself despite how much he knew how she could handle herself. Sherry giggled at his remark, she didn't became an agent for nothing - Sherry Birkin was professionally trained for three years. But she accepted the offer nonetheless; she definitely liked his company.

And she found that it was sweet of him to be so... gentlemanly. To her.

She could imagine him brushing people off with his regular 'Fuck off'. Luckily, not to her.

"So, why didn't you take the money with you when you left?" She resumed the conversation they had previously left off.

"It's more like a promise to my mom. I always said that I can raise the money for her medical expenses. So, after I buried her at the cemetery, I cleaned the whole damn house, put the money at her bed and that was it."

She knew what he meant after that part. He joined the mercenary and became a drifting soldier of fortune.

But he couldn't help but added, "Plus, I don't really need the money. I'm a single man."

"Then why 400 thousand dollar for your service and 50 million dollars for your blood?"

He answered honestly, "Because you can practically do anything with shitload of money. But that's not the main reason though." He coughed, "The huge payout was just something I used to teach my contract that I'm not a man to be messed with. Like you, at that time. Although I didn't really expect that you guys could afford 50 mills. It worked, didn't it?"

She blushed, but nodded in defeat. She was very uncomfortable when she had to be with Jake during the first moments. 50 million dollars, that's a bit too greedy for a man like him.

It wasn't a very long walk before they had reached Jake's vehicle: a snowmobile, just like in Edonia. Sherry was always right about Jake being a wise ass, in a good way. He was indeed very quick-witted, she had expected him to rent a bike but it wouldn't be a very smart choice for the snowy ground. The ride itself was nice too when they knew that they didn't need to avoid an avalanche that was about to consume them.

When they had reach the town where Sherry's hotel was, he first stopped at where he rented the vehicle before walking back to the front of her hotel.

"So, you'll be going back to States soon?" He asked wearily.

"Actually, it's tomorrow. I only had a week off. I'll be flying back there in the morning and maybe reaching there by the evening. Then back to work."

"Do you have offs next month?" He asked suddenly.

Sherry's lips curved in amusement. Why would he wanted to know her day off? "Well, maybe. I still have my annual leaves too. Why?"

Jake grinned, "Excellent." He groped around his pocket for his wallet the pulling out a small piece of paper and showed it to her. She could have sworn that her eyeball fell out. She just couldn't believe it.

It was a flight ticket to USA.

"Since I give you a pretty nice tour around my place... I think I need a good tour guide around Uncle Sam."

* * *

**A.N: I never thought that I could fit in Jake/Sherry in this fic. Initially, I planned to make this a Jake only fic to explore his past. Never thought that Sherry could fit in so well (For me). See? I can't keep my them two separated.**

**And the last part wasn't pre-planned. The fic was supposed to end when Jake handed Sherry his mom's final note. Then the ideas keep popping out and voila, an extra Jake/Sherry event.**


End file.
